Anti-bullying workshop to be held May 20

Mon, 05/10/2010 - 6:16amBen Nelms

An anti-bullying workshop with information to benefit students and parents will be held May 20 at Sams Auditorium in Fayetteville.

Times Well Spent, Inc. has recently partnered with the Fayette County schools, local law enforcement and the Association of Village PRIDE, Inc. to provide the anti-bullying workshop geared towards the parents of elementary and middle school students. The event will be held at Sam’s Auditorium on May 20 at 7:30 p.m.

The workshop is an opportunity to gain insight into the world of bullying and will focus on helping participants become better informed and better equipped to assess, manage and respond to bullying behaviors and situations, said workshop organizer Pamela Reid.

Reid said the focus will be on prevention and how to decrease bully/victim behavior at home and at school. The rise of the Internet has opened up new doors for those who wish to bully other children. Chat rooms, social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, email, instant messaging and other online tools have all helped create the cyber bullying epidemic.

Some bullying statistics parents need to be aware of include:
-77 percent of kids are bullied mentally, verbally and physically.
-Only 10 percent of kids tell their parents that they have been bullied.
-Each day 160,000 students miss school for fear of being bullied.
-Playground school bullying statistics show that every 7 minutes a child is bullied. Adult intervene 4 percent of the time, peers intervene 11 percent of the time, while there is no intervention 85 percent of the time.
-33 percent of students report being bullied at least once a month.
-6 out of 10 students say they witness someone being bullied daily.
-3.2 million students in 6th-10th grade say they are a victim of bullying each day.

A donation amount for the event is $5 with the proceeds going to the Promise Place domestic violence program.

If adults are able to avoid workplace bullying by researching potential bosses and employers on sites like <a href="http://www.ebosswatch.com">eBossWatch</a>, what is the solution for children to be able to avoid schoolyard bullies?